AHDB Pork Weekly Export Bulletin

BPEX Weekly Export Bulletin - 31 October 2014

During her visit to the EBLEX stand, Secretary of State Liz Truss pledged to support the opening of new export markets. She wants “to make further progress in China, particularly in pork”. She confirms her visit to Beijing in early December.

According to Chinese statistics, UK pork exports to Mainland China to the end of September reached 20,381 tonnes, representing 4.81% of total imports. For offal, exports represented 12,247 tonnes, accounting for 1.96% of total Chinese imports. The USA, with 33% of offal imports, and particularly Denmark, with 19% of offal imports, are doing best.

UKTI postponed its Festival of Creativity planned for Hong Kong in November. We are aware of the financial reasons for the postponement of this event with which we were loosely linked. However, the local media saw this as a yielding to the ‘external forces’ behind the recent protest. These are sensitive times.

Netherlands

Consortium to promote Dutch pork

Ketenplatform Varkenshouderij, made of organisations NVV (producers), LTO and COV will start to promote Dutch pork. This will commence with a presence at the Grüne Woche (Green Week) in Berlin in January, says Theo Dutewert of NVV. A new Internet site “Pork from Holland” has also been launched. (Source, Boerderij Vandaag)

France

Le Porc Français

The “Régalez-vous à la française” (Enjoy food the French way) campaign featuring autumn recipes over two pages with the new logo “Le Porc Français” has started in the French press (women’s press and in TV magazines) on 22 October running until 12 November. The campaign is aiming to generate 50m contacts and will be supported by an internet quiz and POS material distributed in supermarkets and butcher shops.

Trade balance

In spite of the Russian ban, pig meat exports during the first six months of the year remained stable at 361,000 tonnes. A decrease in exports to third-countries was compensated for by an increase in exports to other EU member states such as Spain, Italy and Germany, in particular. Exports to China are stable but shipments to Korea and Japan significantly increased, up 160% and 78%, respectively. As far as imports are concerned, the two major suppliers, Spain and Germany increased supplies by 12.5% and 3%, respectively, and together represented 70% of total French pig meat imports. The major concern for the French industry is the deficit of the trade balance which reached €200m over the first six months of 2014.

Markets

Pigs: Despite the stability of European prices and the small increase in some north European prices, the 56 TMP base price lost €c0.5 last Monday at Plérin. This was attributed to a lack of demand from abattoirs and relatively high supplies.

Piglets: The FNP-FNCBV prices fell again by €c4 on the week for 25kg weaners and, although the price for 8kg piglets eased by €0.72, the week-on-week fall was less marked than a week ago.

Cuts: Over the four-week period ended 5 October, FranceAgriMer/Kantar Worldpanel noted that the purchasing was good. For loins, purchases increased by 7.8% compared with the same period in 2013 and other cuts increased by 5.1%.

Germany

More meat-free products

Rügenwalder Mühle, one of the best known sausage brands in Germany is now offering vegetarian versions of its products. This confirms the heavy trend for meat-free products in Germany. (Source, AFZ, various)

German pig market balanced

Large regional differences can be found on the pig market in Germany. In some regions, especially eastern Germany, numbers of available pigs are just sufficient to meet current high demand from slaughter facilities. Producers, therefore, demanded a price increase of €c3 per kg. In other regions, slaughter pigs are more difficult to sell and partially exceed demand from slaughterers. In addition, the meat market is still lacking any impulse and marketers are only able to achieve similar prices, at best, and any price rise could compromise further sales. Therefore, the recommended pig price remained unchanged at €1.40 per kg.

Spain

Consumption crisis

Spanish pork consumption is following the same downward trend in 2014. Data up until August shows that there is a stronger decline for processed products than there is for fresh meat. Consumption of fresh product in the first eight months of the year eased 1.9% compared with the same period in 2013 in volume. However, higher prices partially offset this decline with the overall value only falling by 0.7%. The fall in consumption of processed meat declined by nearly three times as much, falling by 5.7% in volume. (Source: Mercolleida).

Russia

Cadmium accusations

Rosselkhoznadzor has indicated that the high level of cadmium was behind the latest ban on European offal. This is, of course, questioned by the European Commission. (Source, European Commission)

Sausage containing the ASF detected in Ivanovo

Rosselkhoznadzor officers detected the ASF genome in cooked sausages in Ivanovo. The sausage was produced by the Mogiliov meat-processing plant in Belarus. Currently, measures are being taken on the territory of the oblast to prevent the spread of the disease. (Source, ivanovonews.ru)

Meat seized

While searching 26 refrigerated containers with accompanying documents stating they contained frozen mushrooms, juice, fruit jellies and chewing gum, North East custom officials discovered some 600 tonnes of meat and fatback pork produced in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland. Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that the ships came from Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp. (Source, AFP)

Border inspections to increase

Rosselhoznadzor has announced that border inspections will increase in the light of increasing attempts to illegally import pig meat. Illegal shipments not only enter the country without paying duty or taxes, without the relevant health certificates and are usually transported in inappropriate transport conditions. (Source: Agrodigital.com)

Belarus

Lower pork production

Production of pork in Belarus during the January to September period fell by 20.8% to 127,500 tonnes. Production of ready-to-consume products and preserved products from pork during the same period amounted to 12,979 tonnes, 11.1% less than during the same period in 2013. (Source, agriculture.by)

Montenegro meat banned

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Belarus temporarily banned the import of meat from Montenegro on request of Rosselkhoznadzor which suspects the country is re-exporting EU products. (Source, meatifo.ru)

USA

Pork market “chaotic"

The pork market is described as “chaotic” as the whole chain tries to cope with the sudden fall of pork prices. Prices plunged to US$c98 per kg carcase weight last week (£1.34 per kg). (Source, own)

WTO COOL ruing

The World Trade Organisation has ruled against the USA and for Canada and Mexico regarding the Country Of Origin Labelling (COOL) legislation. The USA has sixty days to appeal. (Source, WTO)

Sausage month

British sausage week will overlap slightly with the US sausage month which includes a large consumer sausage recipes competition. This follows Hot Dog Day on 23 July. The www.hot-dog.org site has a wealth of data and information. An October survey shows that 84% of US citizens enjoy sausages with the Italian, breakfast, kiebalsa and bratwurst varieties best liked. (Source, National Hot Dog and Sausage Council)

Campaign to repeal damaging law

A wide coalition, formed by a wide range of organisations, has been fighting since 2007 to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standards law which governs the subsidy of corn for the production of ethanol. Some 43% of US corn is now transformed in ethanol. The campaign has gained good traction in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The coalition believes that the controversial law could be repealed next year despite the elections. This could have major repercussions on world grain prices. (Source, own)

Wendy’s for pulled pork

The major hamburger chain has launched a pulled pork sandwich with a choice of three toppings. The launch is, of course, supported by a media and social media blitz. (Source, Wendys)

Pork Internet promotion

The National Pork Board has teamed with Ibotta launching a free shopping app offering savings on food with 2.8m users. They offered a US$c50 coupon and an additional US$c50 coupon when downloading a promotion video showing pork production. Some 4,000 stores participated in the promotion and some 6m hits were registered. 90,000 people downloaded the video together with 102,000 recipes. The coupon redemption rate, at 14%, is exceptional. (Source, NPB)

‘Bacon roses’

This PR stunt, also from the National Pork Board, was very successful. Cooked bacon ‘roses’ on green plastic stems were distributed and the recipe was presented on social media for Valentines Day. This generated an enormous level of interest, with Florida generating the best response. The campaign “A rose for your bros” forms part of the #porkLUV campaign. (Source, NPB)

Mexico

Production still expanding

Despite disease issues such as PEDv, the 2015 Mexican pork production forecast is estimated at 1.29m tonnes. This is higher than the 2014 estimate due to lower feed costs, the continued incorporation of new breeding lines and better farm management techniques. Rabobank has a grimmer view, with a forecast of fall of production of 11% this year due to the impact of PEDv, accompanied by a rise of imports to 900,000 tonnes and fall of consumption from 16.6kg per capita in 2013 to 16.3kg in 2014. (Source, USDA, Rabobank)

Japan

Impact of PEDv

Some 370,000 piglets are said to have been lost due to PEDv since October 2013. Japanese pork prices have risen due to lower supplies. (Source, Yukan News)

Thailand

Russian approvals

Betagro and Bangkla abattoirs have been approved for the export of pork to Russia following an inspection by Rosselkhoznodzor. (Source, Rosselkhoznodzor)

World

Reefers: business growth

The traffic of refrigerated containers is increasing at the healthy rate of 6.5% per year. At CMA-CGM, the third largest operator, fruit and vegetables represent 43% of shipments, ahead of fish and seafood with 11%, meat 10%, dairy products 7%, poultry 6%, ready meals 4%, pharmaceuticals 3%, potatoes 2% and garlic 1%. The company plans to increase its portfolio from 185,000 to 192,000 containers. The total number of reefers should increase from 1.6m in 2013 to 1.9m by 2018. Meanwhile, the number of refrigerated ships is declining, as even bananas are now sent in controlled atmosphere containers. (Source, Le Figaro)